Humans may experience high-pressure blasts in a variety of different contexts. For example, in military warfare, the increasing use of improvised explosive devices (“IEDs”) has made traumatic brain injury (“TBI”) a serious, hard-to-diagnose, and widespread injury. In addition to soldiers, however, other individuals who also work with explosives (e.g., construction workers, miners, etc.) may likewise experience a degree of high-pressure blasts, sometimes serious enough to cause TBI. Epidemiological studies are often needed to correlate blast exposure to the symptoms of brain injury. However, the data required to do these studies is typically lacking.
Portable blast monitors have been fielded to record blast exposure data and to correlate the exposure to the symptoms of brain injury. These blast monitors typically employ accelerometers and pressure sensors in combination with batteries, microprocessors, and digital memory for storing multiple event transients. These systems often provide key data linking blast exposure to TBI and permit treatments to be developed. However, the size and cost of these systems currently limits their use. As such, a need exists for an improved blast dosimeter.
In addition, there are a variety of situations in which it would be useful to record the maximum acceleration experienced by an object. For example, in shipping accidents, such as where packages are dropped, it would often be useful to know what the peak acceleration experienced by the packages was during their mishandling. Unfortunately, given the complexity, size, and cost of today's accelerometers, it is generally impractical to employ them for such a use. Accordingly, there is also a need for an improved dosimeter that measures a maximum acceleration experienced by an object.